i have my senegal and rocket gars eating blood worms and that seems to be good for them, i was feeding guppies for awhile but after reading so much on here decided against that. now how about meal worms? are they safe? obviously you can't quarantine them. what are the pro's and con's to them? the best thing for fish is live food, and i feel this is a good approach. i've tried krill but its too big for them and they seem disinterested.
meal worms as feeders
- Thread starter zpetrichko
- Start date
My friend used to use live king meal worms and he was a stickler for being very careful about this type of thing. I tried them for a while and none of my fish seemed to like them that much, they preferred pellets. They would often attack the meal worm, then spit out 90% of the pieces. I have not tried regular meal worms on my fish (as it would take 100's every feeding) but my carnivorous plants seem to like them.
Why avoid guppies? I breed my own and never had an issue with feeding my other fish. personally i don't like mealworms.. they're hard exoskeleton is almost impossible to digest, and can be sharp enough imo to do internal damage, not to mention the mandibles on these bugs if ingested still alive could do major internal damage to the fish before death of both worm and fish. and unless you gut-load them first, the nutritional value is not imo, ime any better or worse then other feeders.
crickets, earthworms, home bred fish. are the only live foods I generally use. Otherwise QTing any bought feeder fish. wax worms are also a good treat, but I've been told they generally have a high phosphate value and low calcium level. which personally is not worth the risk particularly to my juvie fish for proper bone development. There is also a list around here somewhere where oddball iir listed the nutritional values of most feeder type creatures.
My Senegels get earthworms/nightcrawlers and I am more then happy with the results, you can also try frozen silversides. My needlenose only takes live and I've fed him mainly on QTed rosy minnows, and platies,guppies,mollys I've bred myself. He will also take crickets, but no pellets.
If you're going to try mealworms, I strongly suggest chopping their heads off before feeding. I've seen them chew their way threw reptiles, so have little doubt they are capable of doing it to fish. Most fish do chew their food though. lol. But it is a precaution. I know some people have prolly been feeding them for years, w/out any problems.
crickets, earthworms, home bred fish. are the only live foods I generally use. Otherwise QTing any bought feeder fish. wax worms are also a good treat, but I've been told they generally have a high phosphate value and low calcium level. which personally is not worth the risk particularly to my juvie fish for proper bone development. There is also a list around here somewhere where oddball iir listed the nutritional values of most feeder type creatures.
My Senegels get earthworms/nightcrawlers and I am more then happy with the results, you can also try frozen silversides. My needlenose only takes live and I've fed him mainly on QTed rosy minnows, and platies,guppies,mollys I've bred myself. He will also take crickets, but no pellets.
If you're going to try mealworms, I strongly suggest chopping their heads off before feeding. I've seen them chew their way threw reptiles, so have little doubt they are capable of doing it to fish. Most fish do chew their food though. lol. But it is a precaution. I know some people have prolly been feeding them for years, w/out any problems.
the worms drown if not eaten right away ..so theres a very little chance they will eat through a fish's stomach...anyways ive always had a varied diet for my oscars....krill .meal worms. crickets. and varied hikary pellets...just dont make meal worms their only diet...
should i stick with mealworms and bloodworms? i think they need to get off guppies for awhile because the biggest gar seems very disinterested in anything but live fish however with the worms squirming around he takes notice and eats em up.
Im not too sure how quick they can drown but I have seen them eat their way out of reptiles. I dont think they can eat their way out of your stomach tho because ive seen many people eat them live. Cutting the head off is the best choice if deciding to feed them to your fish.urboyjay682;3626152; said:
nightcrawlers do indeed seem like a better option, I've always worried about smaller fish having problems with the shell on the mealworms
I agree. Mealworms aren't that nutritious anyways. I haven't fed them to any of my fish or reptiles in over 15 years. The only live feeders I give my pets are earthworms, crickets and dubia roaches.snyder810;3628690; said:
